Obituary for Gustav Schoser

Gustav Schoser of Hofheim (Taunus) died on 5 January 2012 at the age of 87. Mr Schoser was born on 22 August 1924 in Trochtelfingen (Hohenzollern) as the eldest of four children of Maria and Gustav Schoser (sen.). He first studied theology, switched later to biology and graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen. On 11 April 1955, he married Rita Geißler. The Schosers had four children. The family first lived in Tübingen and moved to Frankfurt (Main) in 1968 when Gustav became director of the Frankfurt Botanical Garden Palmengarten. In 1992, he retired from this post and moved to Hofheim.

Gustav's motto 'attempto' (I dare)

Mr Schoser received several decorations among which the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and several botanic awards. Several orchids carry his name. He also published numerous books and articles on gardening. Mr Schoser is survived by his wife Rita and their four children Claudia Schoser-Blottner of Berlin, Regina Philipps of Waldenburg, Susanne Hillmann of Wiesbaden and Benedikt Schoser of Munich and their five grand-children. A memorial service will take place at Frankfurt's main cemetery on Friday, 13 January 2012.

A soft spot for big beasts

Susanne Hillmann (Schoser) is editor at the German public broadcaster ZDF. Her speciality are animal and nature programmes.

Recently, Susanne has edited several TV series on animal life in zoos. She has presented the whistling Orang-Utan of the Heidelberg zoo, the only European howler monkies in Cologne and the removal of ice bear Flocke from the Nuremberg zoo to the (not so arctic) French Côte d'Azur.

Apart from these zoo series, Susanne has ventured into documentaries about the culture, customs, flora and fauna of far-away places. In her documentary 'Magic of Cappadocia', she reports about life in the famous underground cities of Cappacdocia in Central Anatolia (Turkey).

In an episode of the documentary 'On the road with Starship', she presents animal life in the impenetrable rainforest of Venezuela. The full episode is available on Youtube.

A sportive crowd

en route en Forêt de Soignes

Schosers are a sportive crowd. In particular, they like running. John Schoser from Evanston, Illinois prefers the short distances up to 10K. In 2008, he participated in seven such runs. Joe Schoser from Henderson, Nevada seems to be specialised in half-marathons which he finishes in less than two hours. It so happened in March 2007 at the Las Vegas Half-Marathon and in December 2006 at the Six Tunnels Half-Marathon on an old railroad track near Las Vegas. Christof recently took part in a Ultra Trail Miles Marathon in the Forêt de Soignes and finished the 22K part also in just under two hours.
Finally, Achim and Susanne Schoser from Owen, Germany can claim to have covered the longest distance. Both took part in the 1st Albtrauf-Marathon 2008 over a distance of 55K and an elevation gain of 1150m. It should however be mentioned that they were on mountain bikes...